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Smart Fuelling: The Intersection of Technology, Safety, and Consumer Convenience in Fuel Delivery
No full textFuel delivery is a major disruptor since on-demand services\u27 emergence results in creative ideas across several sectors. Conventional fuel stations have difficulties like safety issues, long lines, and fuel adulteration. This paper investigates how smart fueling solutions integrating mobile platforms, safety protocols, and user centered design can address consumer pain points while aligning with broader mobility and sustainability trends. Drawing on surveys, interviews, market analysis, and competitor benchmarking, the study proposes FuelX, a conceptual service model combining verified fuel quality, emergency refueling, GPS-enabled delivery, and user-friendly digital interfaces. Through extensive research of industry trends, user personas, technological integration, and safety precautions, this paper offers a scalable and successful business model for fuel distribution services
Structural coupling as a strategy for achieving stakeholder co-benefits: A Case of Public Service Design in Shanghai Community Childcare
No full textStakeholder co-benefits are critical in public service design, yet existing tools lack systemic capacity to articulate multi-stakeholder values and resources. To address this, the study responds to public service design complexity by leveraging structural coupling theory to identify actionable co-benefit opportunities. Grounded in this theory, it proposes a three-phase service innovation framework—Structural Coupling Status (CS), Structural Coupling Gap (CG), and Structural Coupling Opportunity (CO)—as a design tool that integrates diverse stakeholders’ motivations, activities, and rights/responsibilities (M.A.R.) into a reciprocal analytical structure. Validated through a case study on Shanghai’s public childcare services, the framework identifies coupling mismatches and enhances resource integration among grandparents, parents, active elderly neighbours, service providers, and governments. By operationalizing structural coupling theory in service design, this research contributes a practical framework for policymakers and designers, offering actionable insights to optimize public service systems and foster stakeholder co benefits
Affordable Housing using Bamboo: A Community-driven Service Design Inquiry using Creative What-if Exercises
No full textAffordable Housing (AH) remains a critical global issue, especially for economically weaker sections (EWS) of the developing countries like India. Non-affordability of typical building materials, make the EWS choose alternate materials like bamboo, which is traditionally-used in the tropics for being sustainable and affordable. However, challenges related to standardisation and societal perception hinder its mainstreaming. This warrants a holistic design approach like Service Design (SD), connecting different stakeholders involved with AH using bamboo, at the system level. While SD has wide application across different sectors, its role in building industry, remains relatively underexplored. Subsequently, four community-driven Indian initiatives are studied to understand their system diagrams and business model canvases. This is followed by role-changing What-if exercises to envision what could possibly be the SD approach if each of these four businesses attempted to address the issues of AH by bamboo. These role changing exercises lead to learnings that are used as a design response to identify parameters of a SD framework for AH using bamboo
Building a Resilient Local Youth Community in South Korea: A Case Study of the “Workday Club”
No full textThis research explores the factors that contribute to resilient local youth communities in South Korea, using the “Workday Club” as a case study. It examines how these communities combat the challenges posed by urbanization and migration to Seoul causing a regional decline and a depopulation crisis. The study emphasizes the importance of rekindling traditional Korean community values, like “Dure,” which fosters collaboration and social support. The research also analyses youth communities and entrepreneurship and identifies critical factors such as social engagement and entrepreneurial opportunities as key to building resilience. Ultimately, it provides insights and strategies for building thriving youth communities that blend social and business aspects, foster mentorship, and encourage adaptability in a changing world
Animal-Centered Service Design for Stray Animals in India
No full textAccording to the State of Pet Homelessness Index data of 2021, India has a high prevalence of stray animals, with around 80 million homeless cats and dogs. The living conditions of these animals are harsh and unsafe. Services for stray animals are managed by the animal welfare departments, non-profit organizations, and caretakers. The objective of this study is to investigate the efficacy of existing stray animal welfare services and understand the role of the stakeholders towards creating a safe and healthy environment for these animals. Semi-structured interviews of eighteen stakeholders and site immersions at five Mumbai-based NGOs were conducted. The study diagnoses the state of the current stray animal service ecosystem by mapping the interactions of the existing services and identifying potential areas of design intervention. Findings from the study indicate inefficiencies in the reach of these services and lack of integrated stakeholders efforts underscoring the need for a holistic approach for stray animal welfare. This study demonstrates a novel application of service design approach for developing animal-centered solutions beyond human-centred application
Is it About Time? On the Meanings of Temporal Representations in Object Art
No full textPerspectives on time within interaction design research have extended beyond material embodiments, such as standard clocks, to exploring alternative designs and situating these in cultural practices and relations. We investigate examples of how time has been expressed in a series of object-based artworks that represent time otherwise, highlighting how they use a variety of material forms to engage with social, political, and contextually performative issues. Through a critical analysis, we illustrate how such works engage with topics of social negotiation, hidden labour, gender, power, and technology-supported disruptive living. We end with a reflection on how these expressions of meaning-making cultivate plural interpretations, require situated readings through contemporary culture, experiment with temporalities and materialities, and how these aspects can contribute to design
Homework: The politics of participatory design in distributed contexts
No full textThis paper examines the evolving nature of participatory design as it shifts from co-located, real-time engagements to asynchronous, delegated participation—a transformation conceptualized here as homework. Through two case studies—a toolkit for activist self-organization and a workbook-based remote design process—the paper explores how participation, when structured as homework, redistributes agency, responsibility, and knowledge production across time and space. The analysis of this paper highlights how Participatory Design, when mediated through artifacts such as toolkits and workbooks, can both enable and constrain engagement, shaping power dynamics and the ethics of care in distributed collaboration. The discussion critically examines how delegation impacts environmental justice, counter-narratives, and infrastructuring, raising questions about the unseen labor of participation, the risks of reinforcing existing knowledge hierarchies, and the potential for new relationalities in asynchronous collaboration
Design facilitation skills: Discrepancies between research focus and industry needs in US job postings
No full textIn design, designers often act as facilitators, helping cross-functional teams capture, evaluate, and integrate diverse ideas to create improved products. While the broader application of facilitation has been extensively explored, the specific demand for design facilitation in the industry remains understudied. This study bridges the gap by exploring the call for design facilitation in the U.S. job market. Through a content analysis of job postings and a novel approach for tracking skill trends over time, we identify key design facilitation-related skill employers seek, uncovering four patterns. We also discuss implications for design education, proposing curriculum changes to better prepare students for evolving roles. This study provides practical insights for educators and students to align curricula with industry needs and enhance skill development initiatives. This study also provides important insights for relational design, emphasizing effective relationship management in modern design practice
Relational Design for Remote Intergenerational Sensorial Play Experiences
No full textThis paper explores intergenerational mental well-being through sensorial play between children and remote grandparents. With increasing physical separation due to transnational family networks, maintaining these relationships is vital for mental health. While digital communication tools help, excessive screen use negatively impacts children\u27s well-being. Through three case studies, we exemplify relational design sensitivities by engaging participants in co-creation, adaptive improvisation, and networked interactions through our design process. We investigate how relational design approaches combined with sensorial design could enhance connection beyond screens, emphasizing the role of embodied, multisensory engagement in intergenerational bonds
Localizing Design Stories - an Exhibition
No full textlocalizing design stories (locdstories) is a collectively developed design research project. An offer to form a temporary group of a few facilitators and more participants interested in design. This group agrees to take time and share a braver space to explore and reflect upon the relations between their design practice, what stories have been told by whom to them about design, and what stories they would like to share. The setting consists of an adaptable seminar format and an interactive platform, a virtual globe gathering absent situated design stories beyond a dominant design historiography by inviting participants to tell stories they relate to, to localize them, to situate them, share them, to make them receivable, to talk and to listen. We propose an audio-visual installation of a selection of so far localized design stories on the online accessible platform, as well as a visualization of the interactive possibilities with the virtual globe and application